The invention relates to a production line for producing books comprising a book casing and a therein encased book block. The production line comprises a casing-in machine arranged at the conveying end of the production line, used for encasing a book block inside a book casing, and a processing section. The processing section comprises additional processing stations with processing devices assigned at partial distances or clocking intervals along the processing section. A book block can be advanced along the processing stations of the processing section for processing a book block spine. The processing stations comprise, in the conveying direction of the book blocks, a feed station for supplying the processing section with book blocks, a takeover station for taking over the book blocks, an adhesive-application station for spreading adhesive onto the book block spines, a backing station for attaching a backing strip and, if applicable, at least one headband, as well as a pressing station for pressing the backing strip or a headband against the book block spine, all arranged in the above sequence. The book blocks can be supplied successively and in a clocked manner to the processing stations with the aid of a conveyor and with the spines facing the processing devices.
For structural and arrangement reasons, the partial distances, also called the clocking intervals, between the processing stations are normally uniform along a conveying section for the takeover station, the following adhesive application station and the backing or headband-application station, but are farther apart by approximately 40 mm than the regular partial distances or clocking intervals for the conveying section assigned to the feed station.
Book production lines of this type are disclosed, among other things, in German patent document 43 34 224 A1, German patent document 43 34 225 A1, Swiss patent document 694 016 A5 and European patent document 1 894 739 A1.
With the disclosed book production lines, the conveying device and the processing stations are connected to a central drive motor. This arrangement requires a high driving power and results in high mass moments of inertia leading to the use of heavy gears and other involved drive elements. In recent years, the market for printed products, especially books, has shifted to extremely small editions of short-run productions for which the use of individual drives with angle of rotation controlled motors is suitable. Among other things, these motors offer the advantage that complete conveying sections can be stopped in case of a malfunction or that only the remaining production run can be processed out. Book blocks which are located downstream of the malfunction location on the production line can be processed further, meaning the portion of the production line that follows the malfunction can be emptied. As a result, waste material is noticeably reduced for very small editions, thus advantageously impacting the costs.
A traditional book production line normally comprises three conveying sections along a conveying line. The first conveying section is a feed or transfer section in which the book blocks are conveyed in a clocked manner, aligned and then transferred to the second conveying section for additional processing stations that follow in the downstream direction.
The second conveying section provides additional processing stations, as seen in the conveying direction, with a takeover station in which the book blocks are respectively positioned with the aid of a device on the feed section before being picked up by the movable chain mouth of side-by-side circulating chain conveyors that form the additional conveying section for the additional processing stations. The adhesive-application station, the backing station and the pressing station are located along this conveying section, as seen in conveying direction, wherein the adhesive is applied while a book block is moving through and after it is picked up by the chain conveyor, and wherein the subsequent backing and pressing operations occur successively while the book block is stopped.
The third conveying section is formed by the casing-in machine, in which six conveying elements circulate, for example in the form of a bucket conveyor.
The processing of small editions, for example involving 1 to 20 copies of book blocks of the same thickness, requires a relatively high share of the total expenditure for the set-up or conversion time. With traditional, standard book production lines, the requirements for producing a single-book edition can only be realized with difficulty and at high cost.